Data.103 – Old Bowman, Hit by Reality Again

I fell from the sky and landed heavily on my butt.
It was a rough fall, and my speed hadn’t decreased much, so I wasn’t able to land in a cool pose…
Well, that didn’t matter.
I had been defeated, so landing in a cool pose wouldn’t mean anything.

However, the people who had been watching me fight still cheered and clapped for me.
You did well. I’m impressed. That was so close… The warm words entered my ears.
To be honest, in my heart, I still felt regret over the fight. But it would be bad to ignore them.
And so I smiled and thanked them.
Shortly after, other challengers arrived and the attention was moved away from me. And so I was able to be alone.

There were a lot of things that I needed to do.
The first was repairing my equipment.
Charin had cut through me with her axe, so my gear was also severed.
The Windstream Scarf around my neck, the Windcloud Battle Haori around my torso, and the Windguard Hakama around my legs were split into two.
This might take a long time…

On the other hand, the Cloudbore Archery Glove and Sheep Cloudcrossing Tabi were fine.
The axe went through my body, so my hands and feet were spared.
Similarly, my weapon, the Blackwind Dark Cloud Bow, was also fine.

So I had three items that I needed to repair…
I suppose I should go to Mr. Yu’s workshop then.
As for materials needed for repairing them, I had gathered extra materials the last time, so I would be able to do it immediately.

I would log out after finishing with repairs.
My excitement had gotten the better of me, and I had gone into the final battle, in spite of it being night time.
But then again, it was a constellation event, so it felt right to have the last battle at night when you could see the stars.
Not that I had any time to look up at them during the fight. When I looked up now, I could see the twelve constellations, as well as Ophiuchus.
In real life, you would not be able to see all of them at the same time.

It was a nice view…
Now, I had to get a move on…
However, my body did not move.
Even though I knew what I had to do, I wasn’t sure what to do after that.

After fixing my gear and accepting the results of combining the ‘Judgement’ items…would that be enough to beat Charin?
I wouldn’t be able to use the same tactics again.

As I was now, would the addition of new equipment, skills and charge attacks really make it possible for me to win…?
No, the question had been answered during the fight.
It was finally time to rely on that ‘countermeasure’…!
I opened the status window and clicked on the ‘Friend’ tab.

“Ah, there you are.”

“Wahhh!”

I shouted after feeling something poke me in the back.

“Y-you don’t have to look so scared! You ended up scaring me as well.”

“Uh, I was just going to contact you, so it was more of a shock, okay?”

“Hmmm. I guess people who act alike also think alike.”

It was Necoco Strange.
I suppose she was…a comrade?
This girl was the opposite of me in many ways, but we did have similar ideas when it came to games.
And I had promised to become a member of her ‘Ghost Guild’ for events where we couldn’t make it while solo.

Yes, I was going to rely on the Ghost Guild.
Unless I got some kind of overpowered skill by tomorrow, there was no way that Garbow and I could beat Charin.
I was just lucky in the last fight.
I had been able to think of good ideas and my skill with the bow had been on point.
But I doubted it would go so well the next time.
And Charin would have more experience and would have learned a lot.

“I’m here as well.”

“Ah, you’re here too, Satomi.”

“Yes. I saw people were talking online about how the old bowman was taking on the boss. So I thought I’d log in.”

“Hahaha… So they are talking about it.”

Satomi was the boy I had met on my way to Mr. Yu’s workshop.
He was a rather mysterious player who wanted to play the game in the easiest way, and therefore fought through his Unison as a trainer.
He had also been invited to Necoco’s Ghost Guild, and I had adventured with him for a short while.

Now that I think about it, we hadn’t added each other as friends…
I thought that it might be a little awkward coming from an old man, and had avoided it…

“Still, is it just me, or do both of you have worse equipment than before?”

“It’s just as you say. I tried challenging her solo and was beaten to a pulp. My equipment is being repaired now, so this is just temporary.”

“So even the great Necoco and Satomi couldn’t do it…”

“If anything, you’re trying too hard, Mr. Kyuji. Out of all of us, you’re the one who isn’t suited to fighting solo. But you still nearly gave as good as you got.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far. I died in a little over 5 minutes. And I don’t know how much of her HP I had taken away.”

“I was killed in just 3 minutes.”

“Ah… We-well, such things do happen!”

So I wasn’t the only one losing…
Well, obviously.
There were many NSO players, and less than 5 had cleared it.
I was just part of the majority… But I wanted to be in the special minority.

“In any case! I’m now declaring the establishment of the Ghost Guild! Well, it was already made. However, I will begin the process of inviting members in.”

I received the guild invitation message from Necoco.
I opened it and tapped ‘Accept.’

“…That’s it?”

“Yes! Now the Ghost Guild is in action!”

“It’s…a lot simpler than I expected.”

“These days, it would be quite a problem if making a guild wasn’t a simple process.”

“I…suppose.”

Regardless, the Ghost Guild had been realized now.
And Satomi and I were friends.
So there were 3 guild members.
If we included Garbow, then it would be a party of 4.

Normally, 4 was the max for a party.
But we would be able to fight as 5.
Because as a Unison trainer, Satomi had the special ability to ignore the limitation when summoning his Unison.
And since the special ability only allowed you to bring in 1 Unison, he fulfilled a very important role.
As the name implied, a Unison Trainer was a job where you relied on the combat ability of your Unison. So there would be no point if you couldn’t summon them.
So this special right was necessary for solo dungeons and bosses.

Previously, when I was making my way to Mr. Yu’s workshop in the foggy mountains, Satomi said that he used this right in order to have his Unison, Gochu, clear the Sagitarius trial.
As it was a solo trial, I had dismissed Garbow during it.
However, as Satomi could use the special right during mini games as well, he had left it to Gochu.

The power of that right was amazing.
However, it was only given to him because the combat ability of a Unison Trainer was so low.
Having 5 when the limit was 4 might sound very good, but there wouldn’t actually be a big difference in terms of combat ability.
The player and Unison were 2, but were essentially 1 player together.

“Now, as for the future direction of the guild… Well, we can’t start anything until our equipment is repaired. So everyone must go and do that at once! And when we are all finished…we will take on the boss again!”

“What!? So soon? Since we went through the trouble of forming a guild, we should strategize and plan beforehand…”

“Do you really want to do that?”

“…Uh, right. The concept of the Ghost Guild is to be a place where we can fight without worrying about relationships and what others are doing. Okay, forget everything I said…”

“Well, I do understand what you mean, old man. Charin is strong! I only lasted for 5 minutes as well… And so I don’t think that cooperation and strategies will work here. If we don’t plan ahead, we’ll be harder to read. The Ghost Guild is all about unexpected strength based on uniqueness!”

I nodded quietly in agreement.
I could not help but feel the same way.
However…she wouldn’t forget what I had said first…
Was this how Buckler felt as well?
It was difficult to get someone to forget what you’ve said once.

“Another reason for us to hurry is that if more players beat her and as time passes, the fight’s difficulty will be lowered. I want to beat her at the highest difficulty. While it’s not the same as doing it solo, I want to beat her like my aunt did…!”

“Huh!? Your aunt is one of the people who beat the boss? And solo!?”

I was shouting in surprise a lot today, it seemed.
However, I couldn’t help it.
So that was the person who had beaten Charin while solo…!?

“Ahh, so you don’t know about my aunt. I’m pretty sure the video of the fight is already up on her channel, so you should take a look. It may not be useful, but you’ll be impressed.”

Indeed, how could I not be impressed at the sight of someone beating Charin while solo?
I would very much like to see it.
As soon as I finish repairing my equipment and logging out.

“Can you tell me the channel name?”

“It’s MacocoTV… Her name is Macoco Strange. My aunt is the world’s strongest bumerang wielder!”

Macoco Strange…
The name was similar to Necoco and easy to remember.
Alright, I would watch the video so that it will reignite the fighting spirit in me that was starting to fade!

“By the way, my channel is NecocoTV, so please subscribe to that as well!”

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